Once Upon A Time
by ManateeMama
Summary: A story about Brenda's childhood.


**Once Upon A Time…**

 **Sometimes we derive our self-worth from the wrong things, but a strong family can help put the right priorities back in place. This takes place in Season 3.**

Brenda was on the couch channel surfing with Kitty snuggled in her lap. She stopped at a channel giving beauty tips and watched as a woman demonstrated hair styles for women over 40. She expounded that the biggest mistake "older" women make is continuing to wear their hair long, and she went so far as to state that women over 40 with hair below their shoulders are vainly trying to hang onto their youth. When Brenda heard that, she angrily punched the buttons on the remote control searching for a different channel as she asked Kitty, "Who anointed her the all-knowin' authority?"

When Fritz came through the door, she forgot all about the TV as she rose to kiss him. But the woman's statement continued to play in the back of her mind. While eating the burrito he brought for her she asked, "Fritzi, what do you think of my hair?"

"I love it. Why?"

"I don't know. Do you think it's too long? Maybe I should cut it."

"You have beautiful hair. Why do you want to cut it?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm thinkin' about tryin' somethin' different, that's all."

"It's your hair so do whatever you want with it," Fritz shrugged and took another bite.

"Oh, I will. I just want your opinion."

He swallowed and shook his head. "I'm not exactly an expert on women's hair. Do whatever you want. I'm sure I'll love whatever you decide to do."

Later, at a commercial break from the family Christmas movie they were watching, Brenda turned to Fritz and asked, "Are you sure you won't mind if I cut my hair?"

"Why all this worry about cutting your hair? This isn't 'The Gift of the Magi'," he replied. "Go ahead and cut it if that's what you want. You'll still be the most beautiful woman in LA," he smiled reassuringly.

Brenda smiled back at him and turned her attention back to the movie.

Later in bed Fritz turned to her and whispered, "Tell me a story."

"A story? What about?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about a story about when you were a little girl," he replied as he caressed her arm.

"All right. Let me think…"

After a minute she smiled at Fritz and began.

" _Once upon a time in a strange land far away called Japan there lived a four year-old girl with long golden curls. She was the only one in her family who had golden hair, although her mama told her that her three older brothers had all been blond babies too. Even though all the children in Japan had straight black hair the little girl didn't feel different. She felt special._

 _Her mama used to put the little girl on her lap and brush her hair while tellin' her fairy tales and, even though sometimes Mama pulled her hair, the little girl still loved the time she spent on her mama's lap. She could smell her mama's cologne. It always smelled like summer air and flowers. And on Sundays her mama used to put bows in her hair._

" _Pretty soon you're gonna go to school and I'll put bows in your hair then, too," her mama told her._

 _Her daddy always told her she was the prettiest girl in Sunday School. "In fact," he would say, "You're the prettiest little girl I've ever seen." The little girl was so happy to know that her daddy loved her because he often put on his uniform and went away for a long time._

 _Now, the little girl had plenty of toys of her own. She had dolls and stuffed animals, but she didn't have any GI Joe soldiers and her brothers were always in their room playin' war games. But they wouldn't allow her to play with them. "They're not for sissy girls," her oldest brother Clay, Jr. would tell her. "Besides, you might break them."_

 _Even though she begged and promised to be careful, her brothers would just tell her to go play with her dolls and shut the door in her face. So one day when the boys were all at school she slipped into their room and played her own games with the GI Joe soldiers. She played happily with them all mornin' until she heard her mama callin' her for lunch. When she was puttin' them back in the toy box she accidentally stepped on one and broke off one of its arms. And to make matters worse, it wasn't just any GI Joe. It was the one they called 'General Eisenhower'."_

"Uh oh," Fritz interrupted, "I know what I'd do to my sister if she'd ever broken one of my favorite toys."

"If you want to know what her brothers did to her, you've got to let me finish."

"Sorry. Go on."

" _The little girl knew her brothers would figure out what happened and she dreaded it. But she couldn't possibly know just how bad it would be._

 _When the boys got home from school they got out their box of GI Joes and again shut the door to their room to play. When they did that the little girl went into hidin' in her room. The howls she heard when they saw the broken general made her realize that she wasn't gonna stay safe for long. Soon the boys all barged into her room. At first she denied everythin' but it didn't do any good. The boys knew she had been playin' in their room and they were furious. They were so furious that Clay Jr. ordered her brothers to hold her down while he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off her long curls."_

"Awe. That must have been awful," Fritz sympathized.

"It was, but that wasn't the worst part of the story."

"Okay, but can we call the little girl Brenda?"

"All right. Brenda," she nodded in agreement but replied, "Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

"Uh huh. Go ahead."

" _The little girl… Brenda… cried because the boys had taken away the only thang she thought made her special. But she was sure Mama could fix her hair so she picked up as much of it as she could carry and took it to Mama beggin' her to put it back._

" _What did you do?" Mama demanded. Brenda told her about bein' held down while Clay, Jr. cut off her hair. But she might have forgotten to mention the part about breakin' General Eisenhower."_

"I'll bet," Fritz grinned.

" _Anyway, Mama had to tell her that there was no way to put her hair back, that she'd just have to wait for it to grow back on its own. And she said she'd have to cut more of it off to even it out. When Mama was finished Brenda's hair was as short as a boy's, and that made her cry even harder._

 _Then Mama, who was wise enough to know there was more to the story, went to find the boys and get to the bottom of Brenda's very bad hair day. So Brenda ran up to her room and cried some more._

 _When she heard the back door open she knew her daddy was home and that he would be furious so she crawled under her bed to hide. But it didn't do any good. When her daddy yelled up the stairs for her to come down, she was sure her life was over._

 _He stood speechless, starin' at her hair. But he didn't yell at her or give her a whuppin'. Instead, he yelled at the boys and ordered them outside to the woods. He made each boy cut his own switch and he gave each of them a good whuppin'. Not one of her brothers was sittin' comfortably at the dinner table that night._

 _Then the next day the whuppin's and General Eisenhower were pretty much put behind them because the base had its Christmas parade and party that night. All of the kids were on their best behavior because they didn't want their daddy to further punish them by decidin' that they couldn't go. So they went and Brenda was eager to talk to Santa. Clay, Jr., Bobby, and Jimmy all decided they were too old to sit on Santa's lap but Mama and Daddy had threatened them within an inch of their lives if they spoiled Santa for Brenda. So, even though each one thought it would be the perfect revenge for the whuppin's they had gotten, they knew there were more where those came from and they wisely kept their mouths shut."_

"Smart move on their part," Fritz laughed.

" _The only thang Brenda asked Santa for that year was for him to give her her hair back. And she was really sad when Santa said that even he couldn't do that. But he reassured her that her hair would grow back and that she was still very pretty. But even though Brenda couldn't make herself believe she was special without her long curls, she still couldn't give up hopin'. After all, everyone knew that Santa could do anythin'._

 _Anyway, Christmas mornin' finally arrived and Brenda was sure that her hair would be back so instead of immediately runnin' downstairs with the boys she jumped out of bed and looked at herself in the mirror. And, of course her hair wasn't any longer, so she swallowed her disappointment and went downstairs to join the rest of the family. But the presents under the tree were of little interest to her."_

"Because she was disappointed that Santa couldn't replace her hair?"

"No. Stop interruptin' me or this story will never end and we'll never get to sleep."

"Sorry," Fritz chuckled.

" _When Brenda got downstairs she saw her daddy wearin' his uniform and she saw his duffle bag by the door. Mama and Daddy had told the children that he was goin' out to sea soon, but Brenda hadn't realized it would be on Christmas Day._

 _Anyway, the rest of Christmas Day was just a blur to her and she barely ate any Christmas dinner. She just stared at the empty place at the head of the table. And that night not even her new doll with the beautiful silk kimono could comfort her."_

"I can't imagine how rough that must have been."

"It was. Actually, it was the worst part of my childhood," Brenda nodded before continuing.

" _Of course, everyone missed Daddy – Mama most of all. But she managed to keep all four children by herself, and she continued to brush Brenda's hair while tellin' her stories._

 _One day another calamity hit. Brenda was playin' in her room with the Japanese doll she had named 'Yuki' when the head snapped off. In tears she carried the doll to Mama who was fixin' dinner. Mama explained that she was busy now but promised she'd look at the doll after they ate._

 _Clay, Jr., who was doin' his homework at the kitchen table, turned to Brenda and said, 'Let me see it.' Brenda hesitated so he coaxed, 'Maybe I can fix it.' Brenda slowly handed both pieces to him. He studied the neck of the doll and figured out how to put it back on the body. 'Here ya go,' he smiled as he handed the repaired doll back to Brenda._

' _Thank you, Clay, Jr. You did that as well as Daddy could," Mama beamed with pride._

' _Thank you,' Brenda said smilin'. Then she gave her brother a quick hug before runnin' off to play, secure in the knowledge that, even though her daddy was gone, she still had three big brothers and her Mama who loved her. Life was gettin' better._

 _Fast forward three months and the big day marked on their calendar finally arrived. Their daddy was returnin' home. So they all got into the car and drove to the base to greet him. When they saw him comin' toward them they all ran to greet him. Mama and the boys got there first and crowded around him huggin' and kissin' him, and when he got to Brenda he picked her up and told her that her hair was gettin' longer and that she was still the prettiest little girl he'd ever seen. Brenda hugged his neck and kissed his cheek. Her family was complete again and it was a good family. The end."_

Fritz smiled and caressed her face. "Did you ever cut your hair after that?"

"No, not really. Not short, anyway. I just had it trimmed and got rid of the split ends."

"Then don't cut it now."

"Even though I'm over 40?"

"Even if you were over 100. I love every hair on your beautiful head. Just the way it is. But it's not what makes you special. You'd be the most wonderful woman alive if you didn't have any hair at all," he whispered as he kissed her.

Brenda's breathing became a little ragged and she whispered, "I love you more tonight than I did this mornin'."

The End

7


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